Politics and pedestrians: How traffic was removed from Oxford Street

On a bright, summer's day at City Hall in 2024, the mayor of London's senior advisers were in a room mulling over how to solve the most contentious of issues - getting vehicles off Oxford Street.

In the planning meeting, they were advocating a new approach.

The thorny issue of the pedestrianisation of London's most famous shopping street had foxed mayoral administrations for years.

Every time a new plan emerged, it was scrapped by Westminster Council, who owned the street and could be swayed by the marginal seats on either side of the debate.

Now the mayor's senior advisers were giving him another way he could end the impasse - using a development corporation.

The use of a development corporation for Oxford Street had actually been discussed in City Hall as far back as 2018 when yet another plan got scrapped.

Sadiq Khan had the pedestrianisation of Oxford Street in his 2016 manifesto and plans for it were advanced.

But in 2018, the then-Conservative Westminster Council rejected the idea following opposition from local residents.

This followed a plan by locals to stand for election on the single-issue ticket of anti-pedestrianisation. In the face of such a challenge, the council changed its mind.

The proposal for making Oxford Street traffic-free had already been through a consultation and received the support of the council. London Mayor Lord Khan called the backtracking "a betrayal".

Creating a development corporation was a way around this.

It would mean a mayoral body taking control of how Oxford Street was developed while removing planning powers for the area from Westminster Council.

Three Westminster councillors would sit on the 12-person board, and one from Camden. The rest would be appointed by the mayor.

Having a development corporation in a central London semi-residential location would be unprecedented, with the method only previously being used to convert brownfield industrial areas at the Olympic Park and Old Oak Common.

Critics said it was anti-democratic and that it would disenfranchise local people, but the mayor said residents could not be allowed to hold up the development of the UK's main high street.

The Conservative leader of Westminster City Council accused Lord Khan of "cheating the system".

Even so the Oxford Street Development Corporation (OSDC) was created.

It has left many local residents feeling cut out of the democratic process. They fear the displacement of traffic on to their roads, with buses, taxis and bikes being rerouted to adjacent streets.

Karen Jones, who has lived in the area for 20 years, worries what will happen to their "beautiful garden neighbourhoods".

"You just cannot take 30 or 40 bus routes, and then switch them into green neighbourhoods with playgrounds and children, and expect they'll stay the same."

Michael Bolt, from the Marylebone Association, also feels the area's "fairly village atmosphere" will be ruined because "the traffic's just going to have to find ways around Oxford Street".

"Wigmore Street is going to be pretty well crushed with traffic, and traffic will then have to move up through Marylebone to try and get through."

He points out that when "this same plan came up in 2018, we were able to get rid of that as we had 54 democratically elected councillors, and it was for them to decide.

"Now we have a commission of 12 controlled mainly by him [Lord Khan] and he's able to push this through without us being able to have a say in it. Now it's impossible to exercise a democratic right."

Crucially, the creation of the OSDC and stripping the council of its powers required approval from the secretary of state for housing, communities and local government.

At the time, that was Angela Rayner. Prior to 2024, approval from a Conservative government was unlikely.

City Hall insiders say Rayner's backing was "great" and necessary for the creation of the OSDC.

They also say pedestrianisation is more than just the highway.

The mayor's vision needed a body to oversee the transformation and to create a cultural and retail destination, they argue.

And the creation of the OSDC was critical to that.

Nick Bowes, a former mayoral director at City Hall and now a partner at the communications agency LCA, says the 2024 general election had been key for the move as "everything changed, suddenly the political stars aligned".

He admits the use of a development corporation "isn't without controversy" as City Hall and the local authority, along with those it represents, consider the West End differently.

"City Hall and the government take a view that the economic contribution of the wider Oxford Street area is of strategic importance, not just to London but to the country as a whole.

"In their view, decisions about the future of the area can't just be taken at a local level based solely on local considerations.

"In this respect, OSDC is no different to other development corporations, and the reaction by some to the creation of a 'devco' as 'anti-democratic' is what was also seen in Stratford and west London."

Robin Smith runs a stall on Berwick Street. He thinks this is just the start of a process that will destroy the character of the West End.

"I think that closing Oxford Street will just move all the buses, the cabs, the motorcycles, the delivering vehicles, and the bicycles on to the backstreets, which are residential.

"So all of that congestion is going to go into smaller streets, which are less able to cope with it. And that's gonna create misery for anybody living north of Oxford Street, because their whole livelihood's going to be turned upside down by this."

He also fears small traders will end up being pushed out by larger corporate enterprises, along with the potential impact of more people coming to the area.

"I think it's tragic - 20,000 people coming [to the West End] in the evening is one thing, that's what Soho is and has always been.

"But if it's more like 200,000? That's the size of two Wembleys with no security and no sanitation. There's no public toilets, there's no facilities for this, so the whole thing crumbles."

The real work to transform Oxford Street won't start really until the spring. Over the busy Christmas period, work will not be possible.

Councillor Tim Barnes, deputy leader at Westminster Council, is worried that the plans are not fully-formed.

"We are concerned that some of the things that you'd expect at this point to have been resolved haven't yet been resolved. It's been the case right the way through this process that it's felt rushed, and it's felt under-resourced."

"Realistically, if we wanted this to be the best that it could be, we would have taken more time over it, and the mayor wouldn't have put this artificial deadline on things," he adds.

"We'd have had a much better scheme if we'd launched it next year. It feels rushed, it feels under-resourced, and it feels slightly undercooked."

Bowes thinks how the development corporation diverges from the local council will be important to watch.

Westminster Council has traditionally opposed anything over six storeys. Could the OSDC change that?

He says what is happening will be watched closely.

"To date, mayoral development corporations have been used as vehicles to drive regeneration over large areas of under-developed or brownfield land that is complicated by sitting astride the boundaries of two or more boroughs.

"Oxford Street is very different, covering a significantly smaller geographical area, which is primarily a high density, high land value retail and office area. There is no precedent that Oxford Street can copy.

"Many will be watching closely to see if the OSDC model can be applied elsewhere in London or beyond the M25," he explains.

When you ask advisers at City Hall if the mayor regards Oxford Street as his biggest legacy they don't deny it. They also point to the ultra low emission zone.

But certainly as a physical achievement in London, the mayor thinks his most significant achievement will be making a large part of the so-called "nation's high street" traffic-free.

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